


change of course

by Pontmercyingtilthecowscomehome



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Complete, Dual POV, F/M, Gen, Heavy Angst, One Shot, Seriously Angsty, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, death of darth vader
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-30
Updated: 2020-01-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:40:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22474252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pontmercyingtilthecowscomehome/pseuds/Pontmercyingtilthecowscomehome
Summary: All it takes is one moment to change everything. When Leia is captured before she ever boards the Tantive IV, destinies shift and the stars tremble.Cassian Andor takes on a different, just as dangerous, mission, to save not the Rebellion, but the princess.
Relationships: Cassian Andor/Leia Organa
Comments: 4
Kudos: 6





	change of course

**Author's Note:**

> A very odd "what if" sort of fic from me. Enjoy! Comments welcome.

It wasn’t quite a bad feeling, nor even a sense of dread, in the moment. Rather it was more a sort of sense that somewhere, the stars that watched over them all had changed orbit in their skies.

Somewhere, far from the Star Destroyer she’d found herself trapped on, captured on her way to Yavin IV, an old man who had once been a Jedi put a hand to his heart.

Somewhere, the twin suns rose once more above the bed of a young man whose destiny had changed forever.

Somewhere, every careful plan, laid out and plotted for decades by the darkness that blotted out even the brightest of stars, shattered silently.

Leia wasn’t concerned with any of that. All she knew was the weight of the weapon in her hand and the certainty of the threat to Alderaan that she had just heard.

But she was _aware_ of it, in that dim, distant way she was often aware of things beyond her comprehension. Aware of the movements of destinies, of the flow of actions leading to events and the interplay of the stars and the lives they changed. Aware that she was so much more than just a princess, and yet, so little compared to those who had already made their marks as heroes

Aware of the Force, flowing within her.

It didn’t stop her, though, as it never had before.

Simply put, Leia had a faint, nagging suspicion that the universe hadn’t been expecting this turn of events only moments before she drove the lightsaber into Darth Vader’s heart.

A moment later, the luxury of that thought evaporated as she spun,wielding the lightsaber to block blaster bolts in a way she’d only ever heard of in childhood stories.

But this was no childhood story. This was a simple diplomatic mission gone very, very wrong.

* * *

Cassian stared at the glowing datapad, as if his eyes might be deceiving him. He knew they weren’t, of course, given that he’d actually gotten some sleep today, after the exhausting mission to Eadu. He was alert, clear-headed (as much as one could be, after a mission going as far askew as that one had) and focused on the goal ahead.

And yet, the flashing light on the data pad threatened to destroy all that focus. How could…

How could things have happened so quickly? How could one young woman take down the right hand of the Emperor? The Princess was strong and an excellent shot with the blaster, he knew that much. After all, he’d been the one to train her in hand-to-hand combat. But she hadn’t been on a military mission. She’d been traveling as a Senator.

And yet, despite all his circular thoughts, the reality did not change. The datapad glowed with the truth.

_Leia Organa has killed Darth Vader._

How could any diplomatic mission have ever gone so wrong?

Just as he was about to set the datapad down and return to packing for the mission to Scarif, the screen flashed once more with a new message.

_Her distress signal shows she remains trapped within the Imperial Star Destroyer._

* * *

Trapped inside Vader’s own Star Destroyer, Leia felt, in some strange way, felt as if she was trapped within his words, too.

She wished she had acted before he had spoken. She wished she had been faster. She wished… that she hadn’t believed what he had said.

 _So it is true._ He had said, as the lightsaber had flown into her hand.

 _You are strong in the Force._ He had sounded so calm, even as she had pressed her finger over the switch and ignited the glowing blade.

 _You are my daughter after all._ He had barely said those last words before he had taken his last breath.

The certainty of Darth Vader’s voice echoed in her head as Leia spun in the empty room, searching for any more troopers, any more threats she could neutralize instead of… instead of thinking of what she had just done.

With each deep breath, her poise returned, if not her sense of self. She might be at war within her heart, but at least her face no longer betrayed any of that.

She was a diplomat after all, even if her hands were covered in blood.

That thought led to her next action, as she strode across the room. (only for a moment did she consider that she may never have to _walk_ to fetch another object, not if she had the Force to beckon all that she needed right to her fingertips.) Carefully, she picked up the comm link and switched the green light on.

“Lord Vader?” a voice crackled to life, fuzzy with both fear and a bad connection.

“Not quite,” she replied, her own voice so silky cool it made her shiver. Her hand tightened, involuntary, on the lightsaber (which she had already started to think of as _hers)_ in response to her own fear.

But how could she fight herself, if that was what had scared her?

Leia shook her head. Every millisecond mattered. She needed to act, not to fear, not to doubt. “But I am your new master all the same.”

“I don’t…”

“You don’t have the right to _question_ me Vice Admiral Piett.” Leia found the order easy to give, and strangely enough, found the name just as easy to know. “I am the only daughter of Darth Vader. You will obey me.”

“I…”

Leia lifted her hand, as she had seen Darth Vader himself do, only minutes and yet lifetimes before. She felt the power course through her, her own heartbeat slowing as she imagined squeezing the breath from the vice admiral’s lungs.

But only for a second. Only long enough to complete the mission. Every moment now, she realized, was its own mission, each one deadly certain to bring her life to an end if failed. She had no choice in this.

Not any more.

She was her father’s daughter.

“Reverse our route. We head toward Alderaan.”

* * *

Cassian’s hand trembled, just slightly, as he read the new message once more. “Change of plans!” he announced, his voice echoing in the base’s hallway. He was not one to reverse a mission, not when so much was at stake.

But Cassian had promised Bail himself that he would keep his daughter safe. It was a promise he hadn’t made lightly, not when Bail had asked so little of Cassian and given him so much. It had been the Organas who had rescued Cassian’s sisters before their refugee camp had been raided, and it had been Bail who had assured Cassian that no matter what happened with the Rebellion, his family would be safe on Alderaan.

It was the certainty of that trust which had kept Cassian from ever thinking of his sisters, because to think of them would lead to regretting the man he had become, and that was not a luxury he could allow himself. If anyone ever asked him about his family, he would simply reply that the Rebellion was his. That was true, as true as the blood that coursed in his veins, but it was not the whole truth.

When it came to family, both that of the blood and that of the heart, truth was a rare and sometimes unnecessary commodity.

Cassian called out, “KAYTU! Where are you?” He started to run down the hall, every footstep feeling too slow, too heavy. He wished he was faster. He wished every moment in the past ten days had been different. Mostly, though, he wished that he could believe in the Force as deeply as Chirrut did, as his own parents had once believed.

He believed in the Rebellion, though, and that would have to be enough. It would have to be enough to trust in Jyn and Bodhi, as well as the others. Trust that they would get the Death Star plans without him. At least with the rogue Star Destroyer taking up the Emperor’s attention, Scarif would be considerably less occupied.

And Cassian would have to trust that he made the right choice. He’d sent the U-Wing off with all of his knowledge, all of his friends--his family, truly, but he had stayed behind. Cassian had a different mission to complete.

And so had K-2S0, because, in his own words, given a low survival rate in both options, he rather preferred a mission with Senator Organa than Jyn Erso.

Cassian had known what his friend had meant and smiled ruefully all the same. Neither he nor the droid would ever admit how much they meant to each other. Far easier to be flippant, than admit such a thing.

Finally, Cassian spotted the droid around the corner of yet another corridor. Relief hit him hard, hard enough to make him think, yet again, that he needed to tell his friend how much he mattered. But how could he say that, when words were so rarely true? “Kaytu!” Cassian skittered to a stop in front of the droid, nearly colliding with the durasteel frame. “We have to MOVE!”

“I am not so sure about that, Cassian.”

“What do you mean?” Cassian ran a hand through his hair. This wasn’t like Kay. If there was a mission, he was always at Cassian’s side. Sarcastically commenting at his side, of course, but always there. “Kaytu, the princess is in danger.”

“No. That does not appear to be the case.” Kaytu’s optics flickered for a moment, the only sign he had patched back into an Imperial messaging challenge. “Rather, it is correct to say we are in danger _from_ the princess.”

* * *

“Lord Vader is gone,” Leia’s voice echoed over the all access comm channel. “I, his only daughter, am your leader now. You will take orders from me, your….”

She hesitated for a moment. She had been a princess for her whole life. Had loved and hated, fought against and cherished her title. It had been a burden and a blessing, to be the Princess of Alderaan. She had no equals, not according to peerage laws, among the rebels. She was a princess, alone and lonely, and yet, an inspiration to them all.

A memory flickered, a reminder of a young Rebel spy, tasked with improving Leia’s marksmanship, who had never treated her as royalty, only as a friend.

 _Even the remotest star,_ Cassian had said, _shines with all the others in the sky._

But now, she could not shine. She could not be a princess, an inspiration, a symbol of hope. She must implode, collapsing like a neutron star, and burn once more, bright and terrible to behold.

“Your _empresses.”_ She said, simply, challenging the wizen man who ruled the galaxy with only two words, each one falling from her lips like daggers thrown from a practiced hand.

With that, she stepped forward. With a wave of her hand, the barricade against the door flew away. Another wave forced the locking mechanism open. Leia entered the hallway, Darth ader’s long black cloak around her shoulders and the gleam of a red lightsaber reflected in her dark eyes.

Let Palpatine be afraid. Let the whole galaxy tremble. She would become the daughter her father wanted her to be.

She would no longer shine, but _burn._

* * *

Acrid smoke still lingered in the corners of the TIE-fighter, a lingering reminder of how poorly the takeoff procedure had gone. Cassian was more than an able pilot, but TIE-Fighters were notoriously difficult to fly, which was the reason the shstolen ship hadn’t been part of the mission to Scarif.

Even now, as they throttled through hyperspace, Cassian wasn’t quite sure the ship would hold up long enough to reach the destination.

But they had to reach it. Not for the sake of the Rebellion, but for the sake of a promise.

No. Not just one promise. Three. All of them made by him, but only two of them ever spoken out loud.

It was that last, silent promise which filled him with the most conviction. As it oftentimes is in life. Those things we cannot say become the things that ignite our every action.

“Play the recording again, please,” Cassian asked K-2S0, who had squeezed himself into the rear of the tiny ship.

“Which one?”

“What do you mean which one?” Cassian turned, “the one that… the broadcast that Vader’s daughter had taken control of the Star Destroyer.”

Vader’s daughter. Leia. How could they be the same thing?

She was Bail Organa’s daughter. He knew that. He believed that. She was kind and true and bold, in all the same ways as her father. Leia was smart, smart enough to know she needed to practice all of her lessons, not just those for battles fought with blasters, but those fought on diplomatic playing fields as well.

Smart enough to charm him, and kind enough to make him care. Bold enough to ask him for a promise.

Wise enough to ask nothing he could not swear to follow.

But the channel had been broadcast by the Emperor’s own sources. How could that be a lie? A trick, perhaps? But what did the Emperor stand to gain?

Cassian weighed that information in his mind against all that he knew, not only of the princess, but of family and of life. Bonds by blood, he decided, with one backward look at the droid who had become his brother, were weak in comparison to bonds of the heart.

He had promised her that her aim would always be true. Her request had not been a request of him, not asking for his help, simply for his faith in her. What did that promise mean, now, if her sights were set on a different target altogether?

“What channel is it?” Cassian asked. “This new one?”

“A private local one between two stormtroopers. Usually they complain about the cafeteria menu, which is why I enjoy listening in.”

“Why?” Cassian’s eyebrow arched up in surprise.

“Because it still sounds better than the food they serve on Yavin IV.”

That earned a small, simple laugh from Cassian. “Very well. The recording, please.”

Kaytu’s optics glowed red as he played back the recording. Two voices, talking, as friends often did, unaware they were being listened to.

Unaware their words may be their downfall.

_Vader’s daughter… who would have believed it._

_Not me. Not until she flung Admiral Gunui into deep space with just her mind, same as Vader could have done._

_That Force shit… stuff’s freaky._

_Yeah. Well. She’s keeping the same mission, after all. Destroy Alderaan._

_But it’s her home? Isn’t it?_

_Says they lied to her. Says the darkness of the Force is the only true home she’ll ever have. Don’t know about you, TI-12, but I’m not going to challenge her._

* * *

Some soldiers did challenge Leia, in those long hours after she took control of the Star Destroyer. They were fools.

Didn’t they feel the power she now commanded with a wave of her hand? Didn’t they see the fire in her eyes and the sharpness in her smirk? Didn’t they hear the icy disdain in every word she spoke?

But after a few _demonstrations_ of the true power of the Force, finally, there were no further challengers to her rule. Not, at least, on this ship. The Emperor had requested she attend to his summons.

“Not until my father’s work is complete,” Leia had told him in return. The Holo’s image did nothing to improve the Emperor’s looks, she thought, a petty, simple thought. A long time ago, Cassian had told her to keep her thoughts simple, when dealing with those who seemed to be able to read minds.

Let him think her vapid. Let him underestimate her.

Just as Vader had.

“So,” the Emperor had wheezed, sounding half-delighted and half-dying. “You know the truth.”

“Yes.” Leia held her chin high, though she had knelt when the holo message had flickered to life. She was powerful now, that was true, but she was not foolish. Not when so much was at stake. Not when there was a mission to complete. “I will finish what he began.”

“Bold words for such a young girl.”

Leia’s fist tightened, but she remained calm. All of those years in training to be a perfect diplomat also had taught her nearly perfect control of her own temper, and in turn, control of the Force which flowed through her with every heartbeat. “Search my words. You know them to be true.”

A chill had passed over her then. Long, long moments of waiting, followed by a shuddering sigh of relief when finally the Emperor’s grasping presence had left her mind.

“Very well,” he replied. “I expect you once your work is done.”

“And I shall be there,” Leia replied, again, with utter sincerity in her voice.

The holomessage flicked away, fading back into nothingness, like most of what Leia had chosen to surround herself with.

She wore black now, and sat upon a high command chair, alone in the master chambers of the ship. Vader’s helmet rested on a high shelf, high enough that she felt him always watching her, his last words still echoing in her head.

No one had ever told her that her destiny did not rest upon a throne of Alderaan’s making.

No one had ever told her that she was not born under that beautiful sky.

No one had ever told her the truth behind all those lessons, all those exercises in mediation, all those quests to conquer her own temper and impatience.

No one had ever told her what she might become, had she not had those lessons.

Odd how the truth could wound, just as easily as a lie.

“How many minutes until we are in range to fire upon Alderaan?” Leia asked, her finger resting lightly on the button to open the comm channel.

“T minus twenty, your majesty,” a bland, meaningless voice replied. All of those who reported to her sounded the same, looked the same, at least, for as long of a second as she bothered to waste looking upon them.

No one here could stop her. They could doubt her, mock her under their breath, even fear her, but they could not stop her. She was cloaked in power, protected with her rage, and would stop at nothing to achieve her mission.

That was what she had been taught to do, after all.

“Very well. I will come to the bridge shortly, then. I wish to look upon the pathetic planet as it burns.”

Leia said the words with brutal efficiency. Alderaan was pathetic. Too peaceful. Too weak. Too concerned with things like hope and beauty and art, and vastly under-prepared for the war that came nearer to it each moment.

Just as she finished sending yet another message, this one private, unnoticed by most, if not all upon the ship, the chamber doors hissed open.

Leia lifted her head, the black cape sliding over her bare shoulders the way night fell upon a ruined city. “Who are you?”

“Captain Sworth, your…”

Leia heard the hesitation in the young soldier's voice. Heard it, and felt her own heart harden. Her hands clenched the arms of the throne, wondering if she would once again have to demonstrate her power. Wondering if yet again, she was to be underestimated.

“Your majesty,” he said, lifting his head to gaze, not at the helmet high above her, not at the dark throne, but at _her._

And Leia stared back into the brown eyes who had always seen her for who she was and not the power she cloaked herself within.

* * *

“Your, uh,” Cassian cleared his throat. “Your majesty?” he tried out the words, feeling they meant something very different now. No longer a princess but a dark empress. If he had doubts of the truth before, the sight of her, swathed with so much dark fabric and upon so high a throne it made her seem twice her size, with cold rage in her eyes and violence in her smile, those doubts had fled.

She was Vader’s daughter, then, just as the rumors had said.

And Cassian had failed.

He had wasted these last moments of his life, not on a desperate mission to Scarif to retrieve badly needed plans, but on a foolhardy mission to a Star Destroyer, where there was not even a shadow of the princess he had loved to retrieve.

But then, she spoke, and the shiver went straight through all the layers of grey synthwool he wore in his disguise.

“It’s Leia,” she said.

“Wha--?” He cut himself off. That hadn’t sounded like the voice of a Sith, not at all. It had sounded like she always had, soft and gentle and kind. As he brought his gaze up, to face her once more, his heart stuttered in his chest.

The fire turned to starlight in her eyes and her lips curved into a smile made of something as tender as new-fallen snow. Now, he saw the dark fabrics, the throne, the shadows in the room, as the same as his own clothes, his own manufactured gait and false ID.

A disguise.

He had taught Leia far more than just the principles of marksmanship, after all. No, if that had been all that Bail had wanted Leia to learn, he would have asked the request of another soldier.

Cassian had taught her all he knew of spying, taught her how to fade into shadows and how to wear the expressions of another. How to use a voice as not only a weapon, but a deflector shield.

How to lie with the truth and how to take on the role of all that one hates for the sake of all that one loved.

A moment later, Leia pushed back the hood of the dark robe and stared at him with wide brown eyes, full of not anger, but concern. “It’s just me. Leia. And you’re my only hope.”

* * *

Leia was her father’s daughter, and that meant that the mission always came first. Not just the mission, but the cause. As it always had. As it always would, even if she sometimes wished for a different path. Wished, but never seized. Because she knew what mattered, what would always matter.

The Rebellion.

The light.

All of the good things that she had carried in her heart, all her life, had not abandoned her when the darkness had pressed close. She wasn’t Vader’s daughter, and never would be. She was the daughter of Bail Organa.

And if that was what made her underestimated in the eyes of those who judged her weak, or foolish, they would pay a high price indeed.

She was the daughter of Bail Organa and she had promised to complete her mission.

Leia explained as much as she could to Cassian, there in the small throne room, her voice a whisper barely louder than the sound of their breathing. “The Emperor meant to destroy Alderaan. As long as I… If I made it seem that...:”

“That you would do the act yourself, you would buy them more time.” Cassian understood now, as perhaps his heart always had.

“It was a dangerous ploy. But I had no choice. Not after…” Leia looked down at the lightsaber on her hip.

After she had slayed Vader. Cassian understood that as well. He reached out, meaning to only squeeze her shoulder. Instead, he found himself holding her, her heart beating in time with him.

“I’ve sent the order to evacuate. They had to have gotten it. I used Papa’s private channel. I have to hope. I have to…” Leia’s voice broke, fading into soft sobs.

Cassian fought to swallow, finding himself in need of that same hope. “They did,” he whispered to her. “I know they did.”

“But what if… what if it wasn’t enough?”

He had taught her a great deal, and yet, she asked the one question he had never been able to learn an answer to. “We have to believe, Leia. We have to trust in the Force.”

She snorted, bitterly.

“And trust in the cause.” Carefully, Cassia pressed a kiss to her forehead. It was a gesture he had only offered her once before, a lifetime ago, and yet, only a few months ago. Before Tivek’s death. Before he’d ever heard of the Death Star. Before Eadu…

After all of those, he had wondered if he would be too tarnished to offer Leia his heart once more, the next time he would see her. He had promised himself to become the man she deserved, somehow.

It was that promise that had led him here, only to find Leia had become the woman that mirrored his own actions, the spy on a dangerous mission deep behind enemy lines.

“Cassian,” she said, so softly he nearly thought she’d merely breathed. “Did you come for me? Or for the cause?”

His free hand found hers, their fingers tangling together, both of them clutching the other as if they were a lifeline. “I think I came for you. Though I told myself it was for the Rebellion.”

“Then I am not the only selfish one,” Leia admitted. “I sent a comm message to your sisters, as well.”

Relief washed over him, sudden and sweet. “Thank you.”

Leia leaned up on her tiptoes, in that moment lightyears away from anything powerful and prestigious. Her eyes were so warm, her face so hopeful. She had never looked so lovely as she had in that moment, as if she bloomed best amid the darkness, burned brighter when all other lights grew dim.

 _One kiss_ , Cassian thought. It was the only favor he’d ever ask of the universe. Just one kiss.

“Your majesty,” her comm sprang to life just as their lips nearly brushed. “We have reports of transport ships escaping from Alderaan. We await your orders.”

The moment faded between them. The universe may have changed a great deal since Darth Vader fell, but fate was still a fickle thing.

And their story was not yet done.

* * *

But eventually, all stars return to the horizon, and the kiss did happen, no less sweet for how long it had been hoped for.

The location, too, was perhaps as unromantic as the Star Destroyer, as princess and spy sat next to each other in the cockpit of a U-Wing, staring at the wreckage left of a destroyed Death Star. Rogue One had surived Scarif. A young man named Luke Skywalker had found his way to the Rebellion and Ben Kenobi had promised Bail Organa to train both the boy and Leia. Destinies shifted, courses corrected themselves, and the Force flowed as it should once more.

But Leia wasn't thinking of any of those things. Not at this moment. Not when she and Cassian were finally alone again, together, again. The battle had been hard-won and they both knew the cause would ask still more of them yet.

But it asked nothing of them now. Nothing except to live, to cherish the small moment and to, perhaps, love, if that was what the stars held for them. After all, Leia had seen what a life lived without love would do. Had seen the dangers of a love gone wrong, a power unmanaged, and a mission unmet.

Somewhere in the space wreckage floated a lightsaber, housing a blade as dangerous as the red blood that had bound it.

Somewhere, on a planet forgotten by even sunlight, an ancient Jedi waited for his last student to arrive.

Somewhere in the empty space between stars waited the rest of Leia’s destiny; a battle with an Emperor, a galaxy to rebuild.

But in that moment, all that mattered to her was the feel of Cassian’s hand in her own and the sweetness of the truth when he had said, “I love you.”

Some words, like some promises, would always be true, even if they took forever to be said.


End file.
